Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Godmother

By: Hannelore Cayre, Stephanie Smee - translator
Narrated by: Julia Franklin
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

A taut and darkly funny account of an unusual woman and her voyage into the underground ecosystem of crime and justice in contemporary France.

Meet Patience Portefeux, 53, an underpaid Franco-Arab judicial interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specialises in telephone tapping.

Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is now wedged between university fees for her two grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for her ageing mother. She’s laboured for 25 years to keep everyone’s heads above water.

Happening upon an especially revealing set of police wiretaps ahead of all other authorities, Patience makes a life-altering decision that sees her intervening in - and infiltrating - the machinations of a massive drug deal.

She thus embarks on an entirely new career path: Patience becomes The Godmother

This is not life in the French idyll of postcards and stock photos. With a gallery of traffickers, dealers, police officers and politicians who are more real than life itself, a sharp and amusing gaze on everyday survival in contemporary France and an unforgettable woman at its centre, Hannelore Cayre’s best-selling novel shines a torchlight on a European criminal underground that has rarely been seen.

©2019 Hannelore Cayre (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Dallas Noir cover art
The Inheritors cover art
Men Don't Cry cover art
Watch Us Dance cover art
Girl at Midnight cover art
City of Light cover art
Anywhere but Home cover art
Cold as Hell cover art
The Coffin Confessor cover art
Six Wicked Reasons cover art
Three cover art
Escape from Venezuela’s Deadliest Prison cover art

What listeners say about The Godmother

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love this crime novel

Loved Patience, real mid life women, in an unusual situation. It's an easy read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Unlistenable.

Heard a great review for the book on Radio 4 so wanted to listen to it but, I've not finished it, and probably won't as the narrator is just awful (sorry). Terrible delivery and pace. Going to buy the hardcopy book instead.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Slow and disappointing

Not a good book for Audible. Narration kept sending me to sleep. Conscious it was a translation too. At no point did I feel gripped.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!